VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo returned to the Vatican on Saturday, four days after undergoing surgery for lung cancer at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where dozens of well-wishers saw him off with cries of "Holiness."
“I am much better, thank you,” the pope said when asked how he was as he was driven away in a black SUV.
Leo, 71, greeted patients inside the hospital alongside his surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, before waving to well-wishers outside as he walked to a waiting vehicle.
He paused when a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl presented him with a homemade papal doll that she said had helped her through successful cancer treatment. She had briefly met Leo at an audience in St. Peter’s Square last December—an encounter she told reporters “gave her the strength to overcome the illness.”
Ten minutes after driving away from the hospital, the pope entered the gates of the Vatican. He is set to resume some duties on Sunday, when he greets the faithful with the traditional Angelus blessing, exactly one week after he announced to throngs in St. Peter's Square that doctors had found a nodule on his lung — an unusually candid disclosure for a pontiff.
Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.
Since the surgery, Leo has shown signs of recovering well. He had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held meetings with senior aides and celebrated Mass in a makeshift hospital chapel.
Medical bulletins from his personal physician and surgeon also described a good postoperative recovery, saying he had been able to carry on “normal daily activities completely on his own.”
On Friday, the Vatican released the first images of Leo since his surgery, showing him in green vestments standing at an altar in the hospital chapel. Doctors said tests confirmed his “continued improvement.”
Leo presided alone over the liturgy and distributed Communion to medical personnel and Vatican gendarmes, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. In his homily, he thanked hospital staff “for the work they do every day taking care of the sick in their fragility, and in a particular way what they had done for him,” Bruni said.
The Vatican had initially estimated a weeklong hospital stay and canceled his audiences through Tuesday. Experts said patients could be discharged earlier depending on their recovery, while Bruni said the decision rested with the pope’s doctors.
Leo’s next major engagement is a trip to Latin America from Nov. 6-17, giving him about three more weeks to recover before an ambitious journey that includes a dozen flights and two helicopter trips.
The Vatican signaled that preparations were proceeding by publishing on Friday the names of journalists accredited to travel on Leo’s plane. Oncology surgeons say patients are generally cleared to fly after three weeks, provided their recovery allows.
Doctors are still awaiting test results to determine the cancer’s precise molecular and genetic makeup, whether it has spread beyond the lobe and whether further treatment is necessary.
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